What's your go-to game when you are suffering from Burnout?

[MagicPeanut]

I tend to play on the hardest difficulty in Tales for the bonus exp/fol/grade, so the battle issues I saw pretty quickly as I continued through the game, and wasn't a fan of being forced to use certain characters when other Tales games let you use any party makeup you want for the most part. The Alisha/Rose thing I had issues with because they made it feel like Alisha would return at one point, but never did. Rose was just...added into the party on a whim, I feel? No real buildup to getting her to come along, and it felt odd as a result. Also, I meant rushed because after the desert area, when it felt like there was going to be more, suddenly it rushes us from there towards the final areas and ending. It was a pacing issue that felt really jarring.

Also, I found the anime a lot better in terms of pacing, characterization, and story, but the episodes with Velvet and the Berseria crew felt shoehorned in (and only left me wanting an anime for Berseria).

Oh, ok I see. I only play games on Normal so I wouldn't have noticed issues about the gameplay piling up like that, I think. I guess I see where you're coming from about Alisha and Rose, but I felt like they were taking on a more "realistic" approach to it. Alisha had a lot to worry about outside of Sorey's journey, and I felt like Rose was just curious about this "weirdo" but was ultimately thrown into this situation and accepted it. In my opinion, the story is written in a way that makes it seem as if it was her destiny to join him, thanks to that wind Seraphim always following her around. (Forgot his name, it's been a few years lmao.) And about the rushed final areas, like I said, I don't recall feeling that way about it, but it's been a hot minute. I'll be on the look-out for the story's pacing issues when I replay it soon, tho!

I actually can't decide if I like the anime's rewritten parts or not. I guess I like it as a "what if" timeline instead, because it was just a little too rewritten xD. Although, I strongly agree that it made me want an anime for Berseria instead. That would have been a much better idea, for sure.

EDIT: Actually, now that I think about it, I preferred how the anime addressed Eizen, Zaveid, and Edna. It handled the emotional impact of the situation a lot better. (Although, I'm not sure what the conclusion was in Zestiria, as I couldn't figure out how to accomplish it lol.) However, that was really only possible because Berseria existed by then of course. Still, that part of the anime I enjoyed a lot more than in the game.

[RyuDragnier]

EDIT: Actually, now that I think about it, I preferred how the anime addressed Eizen, Zaveid, and Edna. It handled the emotional impact of the situation a lot better. (Although, I'm not sure what the conclusion was in Zestiria, as I couldn't figure out how to accomplish it lol.) However, that was really only possible because Berseria existed by then of course. Still, that part of the anime I enjoyed a lot more than in the game.

The conclusion in Zestiria is literally you killing Eizen on the mountain (you have to go back to Edna's mountain and go to the top to fight him). That's it, there's no saving him, just doing a boss fight with him that ends in his death.